1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer systems and, more specifically, to a method and a system for maximizing the throughput of a computer system in the presence of one or more power constraints.
2. Description of Background
From small clusters of computers to large supercomputers, peak power consumption places a major constraint on the scalability of computer systems. For purposes of cost effectiveness, a computing system may initially comprise a small number of computing elements. At some point, it may be necessary to scale the computing system by adding additional computing elements so as to increase the overall processing capacity of the system. However, each of the components added to the system also increases the overall power consumption of the aggregate system. Energy constraints may prevent the use of computer systems which are capable of providing high throughput. In particular, peak power consumption is constrained such that computer processors are unable to operate at full computational capacity. What is needed is a control system that maximizes throughput in view of energy constraints.